>>On public services the Nordics have been similarly pragmatic. So long as public services work, they do not mind who provides them.<<
A gilt cage is still a cage. It sounds like you can be comfortably numb for all your life in these countries. If you want to really succeed, you have to choose your parents well.
Until 2008, you could succeed in the USA with average talent and intelligence but a lot of drive. Now, I don’t think so.
80 percent of the USA wants a gilt cage. And it is this cage that government wants to deliver.